​Nick Carter Talks About Addiction to Alcohol

Nick Carter has revealed that he struggled with alcohol addiction for years, and his troubles began at the tender age of two, according to his new autobiography. The Backstreet Boys singer opens up about his parents’ dependence.

The singer believes that the dependence at home led to his addiction first to drinking and later drugs including cocaine, Ecstasy, and prescription painkillers. The telling tale are printed in new excerpts from his book, titled “Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It.”

Nick recounts a story which saw him trying alcohol for the first time when he was still crawling at the bar below his parents’ apartment.

“Family legend has it that when I was two years old, I crawled into one of the Yankee Rebel’s liquor storage rooms where I was caught drinking for the first time,” he recounts. “My parents always laughed at that. I laughed too, for a while, and then I didn’t laugh at it anymore.”

Nick claims his mother and father also drank heavily, which he believes was caused by money worries and says he started drinking himself when he was still a teenager.

“My parents …always stressed about money, which is another reason they turned to alcohol so much,” he explained. “I began drinking heavily in my teens and then moved on to drugs at eighteen or nineteen, starting with marijuana and moving up to cocaine, Ecstasy, and prescription painkillers among other substances.”

While his fellow Backstreet Boys tried, without success, to intervene, Nick, 33, blames the crowd he was hanging out with for his out of control behavior.

“My life plummeted to an all-time low,” he says. “We’d chug beers and pound down shot after shot until we reached the semi-comatose state where the alcohol made us sleepy and lethargic. Then we’d do a bump of cocaine for an energy boost.”

Nick said his crowd made partying an extreme sport as they repeated that binge and bump cycle night after night.

Nick’s drinking got so bad that he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart and he eventually realized he had to change his ways.

“I drank, did drugs, and partied until I was paralyzed and passed out [after the diagnosis],” he reveals. “I woke up in a hotel room with my head pounding so hard I couldn’t focus my eyes. … My heart was pounding so loud, I thought someone was at the door. I decided my body was trying to get me to pay attention one last time. … It was change or die.”

While Nick admits he still slips up when it comes to alcohol, he is happier and healthier than ever and looking forward to tying the knot with his fiancee Lauren Kitt.

“I’m not perfect now. I still slip up when it comes to drinking. But I’m alive and great things have happened for me in the last few years,” he said.